More than a dozen cats were living in vacant South Lake Drive home

BY JOSH BICKFORD

jbickford@eastbaynewspapers.com

A group of local volunteers recently helped save the lives of 14 cats which had been abandoned in a South Lake Drive home around two weeks ago.

Cindy Larson, Barb Masterson and Marea Tumber, all members of the newly-formed Barrington Partnership for Animal Welfare (BPAW), spent more than a week capturing a colony of cats that were left to fend for themselves at 1 South Lake Drive after the woman living in the home was reportedly evicted.

"My primary feeling was that I was relieved to be getting these cats to a safe place," Ms. Tumber wrote in an e-mail last week. "Once I caught them, I knew they would be taken care of -- out of the cold, fed, and getting loved by Harbor's staff."

The volunteers trapped 15 cats in and around the large yellow colonial on the corner of Middle Highway and South Lake Drive. As of Friday, 14 cats were living at Harbor Animal Hospital -- all have been spayed or neutered and most are still looking for new homes. (A few have already been placed with new owners.)

Dr. Vered Bar, of Harbor Animal Hospital and also a member of BPAW, said one of the cats captured was very old, had intestinal parasites, was FIV-positive (Feline Immunodeficiency Virus), and had to be euthanized.

"I was here when they started coming in," Dr. Bar said. "The cats were very dirty and very, very hungry. The ones that were found outside were in much better shape. The cats inside -- their eyes were in bad shape, they had skin lesions.

"They're doing much better now. They're all coming around and turning out to be quite nice."

Discovery made

According to Ms. Masterson, the situation at 1 South Lake Drive began around a month ago.

A resident of Echo Drive, Ms. Masterson said a neighbor approached her about a stray cat that had been "bullying" their pet. Ms. Masterson said she was aware of a possible cat problem at the South Lake Drive home -- she had seen numerous cats congregating outside the house and imagined more to be living inside. She thought the bully might be coming from that home.

She said she called Barrington Animal Control Officer Joe Benedetti about the house.

"He said he was familiar with that house and that he had trapped some cats outside that house around a year ago," Ms. Masterson said.

She said she had seen a lot of cats outside the house and thought the people living there had moved out. "I went to a neighbor's house and they said the woman had been evicted," Ms. Masterson said. She later contacted the town manager who reportedly told her the house was in probate court.

According to Ms. Tumber, the previous owner of the cats moved to Warren and took with her between four and eight cats.

Ms. Larson, the president of BPAW, wrote in an e-mail that the town manager gave permission to B-Paw on Feb. 8 to begin trapping the cats; strays had been seen in an increasing amount around three weeks earlier. BPAW members later contacted the family that owns the home, who reportedly allowed the volunteers inside the house.

"Over the next days 3 volunteers, myself, Barb and Marea took shifts setting and monitoring traps and transporting cats in our own personal vehicles," Ms. Larson wrote. "We started at 7 a.m. and wrapped up around 10 p.m. each night." (Officer Benedetti was reportedly on vacation during the period when volunteers trapped the animals.)

Ms. Tumber said she and the others checked the traps every 1 to 2 hours.

"It was such a frigid week, and these guys had no real shelter, and no food," wrote Ms. Tumber.

According to the women who trapped the cats, the interior of 1 South Lake Drive was hard to stomach -- the stench of cat urine and feces permeated throughout.

"It was sad," said Ms. Masterson. "It was sad that anyone was living in those conditions."

Ms. Tumber agreed, although she said she's seen worse. The Barrington resident has traveled to New Orleans six time to help with trapping domestic animals there. She said she got involved after Hurricane Katrina ravaged the area.

"This [the condition in Barrington] was not that bad," she said. "I was just pleased to get them out of this situation."

She said she believed the house at 1 South Lake Drive was uninhabitable, however.

The law

According to Rhode Island General Laws, all cats over the age of 6 months must be spayed or neutered, unless the owner "holds either a license to keep an unaltered cat, or a license and permit for breeding cats." The law also allows for an exemption for cats that could be harmed if they are spayed or neutered. There are fines for people who violate the laws.

Barrington Police Chief John LaCross said the department is still gathering information about the recent incident and he could not say whether anyone would be charged.

"We're looking at the facts of the case," he said.

"We will attempt to get the estate to reimburse the medical bills [for the spaying and neutering]," he added.

Chief LaCross also credited BPAW volunteers for their hard work in rounding up the animals and getting them to Harbor Animal Hospital. "They did a great job," he said.

In an e-mail, Ms. Larson stated that the primary lesson to be learned from the South Lake Drive incident is that people need to have their pets spayed or neutered, and that situations can quickly grow out of control when dealing with cats. According to Dr. Bar, cats can reproduce quickly -- the feline gestation period is two months.